I want you to try and guess who sponsored me to go to Britmums and in return I will send a special prize to one random person who gets it right.
So I am going to give you five hints and then everyone who guesses right before the end of March will go in a random generator to find my winner so its worth a guess isnt it?
1) I love this company and I have blogged about this company more than any other.
2) I always give information and advice whenever I hear anyone mention this company.
My daughters also love this company (a lot).
The names Candi, Dude and Billy are all associated with this company.
A lot of bloggers spent time with this company in December.
So go ahead have a guess, leave me a comment and I will find something nice to send to one of you.
This is Elizabeth's post for the BritMums Piggy Bank Tales competition, sponsored by Virgin Money
Now obviously my three year old cant actually write this blog post but when it comes to savings she has it all sorted so I thought I should share with you just how she manages to save so much money.
Elizabeth has a Child Trust Fund account and both mummy and daddy pay into it every month by direct debit, on last look it had over £1,500 in there.
Elizabeth also has a Savings account (which is supposed to be used to spend on things she needs), Mummy pays some of her Child Benefit into there, she has lots of money in there.
Elizabeth has a few money boxes and she has lots of money in there, occassionally we cash some of it in when she wants to do something extra fun like go on a great day out or buy a toy that mummy won't pay for. Elizabeth doesnt like brown money and insists on silver or gold, brown money is for her little sister who hasnt quite worked out the difference yet.
So how exactly does Elizabeth manage to get so much money at such a young age?
Q: What’s your blog title/URL and how long have you been blogging?
A: Tired Mummy of Two http://tiredmummyoftwo.weebly.com/
Q: Will Britmums Live be your First blogging conference?
A: Yes, I have never been to something like this before although I thoroughly enjoyed getting drunk with some bloggers at the tots 100 christmas party
Q: Did you bag yourself a sponsor?
A: I actually nearly ended up having two, I am just waiting on confirmation before I can announce my sponsor but it is a company who fits so well with my family that I very nearly jumped for joy when they contacted me. I was at work at the time which is the only thing that controlled me.
Q: Are you attending both days?
A: Yes, I will be flying down early on the Friday morning and flying back late on Saturday evening.
Q: What are you most looking forward to about the conference?
A: Mostly I want to network and spend some time getting to know bloggers I have not met yet and also meeting up again with those I have met. I will attend a few of the sessions to but networking is my main reason for being there.
Q: Are you wearing Branded Clothing ( you’re sponsors brand)?
A: No doubt about it, I love me sponsor and I want to show everyone how proud I am, I am not sure what I will be wearing yet as I have a few options.
Q: What is your planed style for this event?
A: Jeans, trainers and whatever else goes with it. A nice pair of jeans can be casual or smart so I will take a few things. I want to be comfortable at all times and I am not really that bothered about clothes.
Q: Are you hoping to be nominated for a BiB award?
A: It would have been nice but I didnt ask and unfortunately I didnt get nomnated.
Q: if so what category?
A: I would have liked the fresh voices category but there are some amazing blogs there that I am happy to lose out to.
Q: Will you be looking to network with Brands?
A: I love working with brands and PRs and find that they not only enrich my blog but also our lives, we have been on great days out and received amazing toys so I am always happy to hook up with more brands.
Q: What do you hope to walk away having gained from the conference?
A: More friends and more contacts. I would love to feel more a party of the blogging community as well.
Q: Will you be dressing up in the toilets for the Friday night BiBs?
A: I am sure there wont be any space for me so I will be happy to stay as I am.
Q: Are you speaking at the conference and if so when, where and how do you feel about doing so?
A: No I am not but there is always next year. I would like to talk about my experiences with brands and pr firms as I feel that I have a great relationship with them and that I know how to approach them for a positive result.
Q: Will you be joining in the early morning bloggercise on the Saturday?
A: Umm short answer is no, not a chance!
Q: What speakers are you most looking forward to listening to?
A: Wow there are so many to choose from but I will definitely be listening to Spencer from SAHDandProud and Ruby Wax.
Q: What workshops will you be attending on the Friday (Day 1)
A: The Clever Bloggers Way to Write about Parenting
Q: What Workshops being held on the Saturday (Day 2) have grabbed your attention?
A: Beginning blogging: Essentials and 360 Media
Q: Are you booked into a hotel for the Friday night, if yes which one?
A: Yes, the Hilton
Q: Will you be looking for after party drinks
A: No doubt about it and I will be feeling pretty rough on the staurday morning too
Q: Are you worried about not knowing anyone or being confident and socialising on the day?
A: Not at all, I know a handful of bloggers from the Tots 100 christmas party and I am really socialable anyway so I will talk to anyone and will happily just introduce myself to someone I dont know. I also look out for people who look out of place or who seem a bit shy so that I can help them feel more confident too.
Q: What are you most likely to be found doing when attending Britmums Live?
A. Drinking, either coffee or beer and talking a lot.
The Rules
Copy the nosey questions, and paste them within your own post, followed by your own answers …
Tag another 2-4 bloggers to do the same (alerting them to the meme) tip (it’s a good idea to make sure they are attending before tagging them)!
Once complete link your completed Meme to the Linky in this post (don’t forget to share rules with your tagged few, giving them this URL for the Linky). This way we can keep track of the answers and importantly who’s tagged.
Please link to, and state the creator as A boy with Aspergers.
I am tagging
@newmumonline
@snuggle_bubby
but if you are going and you want to join in too consider yourself tagged.
Today I read an article on Yahoo News regarding the literacy and numeracy levels in childminders and nursery staff and to be honest I wasnt that shocked.
Whenever I look over Alison's learning journey or see her day sheets from her very expensive nursery I am appalled at the poor spelling on even the simplest of words and it always has me worried about the quality of the teaching there.
This is one of the reasons I am retraining to be a childminder, I believe that I will do a much better job of educating my daughter and any of the other children I will mind. The quality of staff in nurseries is not just limited to this nursery unfortunately and both of the nurseries I have used since the girls were born have had this issue with some of their staff so why do we pay so much money for our children to be cared for by illiterate staff?
At the moment I am only talking about spellings and I suppose I have always just thought, "hey they are not teaching my children how to spell what harm can it do?"
However this report also mentions numeracy issues and that is something that I see as a major problem. Now the report mainly focuses on those looking to enrol on a early years course and I have to say that after my basic skills assessment that allowed me to register for my childminding course I too had suspicions regarding the quality of childminders that are out there.
To be able to be registered onto my 6 week childminding course I had to have a level 1 english and mathematics which really isnt that hard and I would have hoped that they might have increased this to a level 2 which is supposed to be GCSE standard although I am sure it was a lot easier than my GCSE's were.
Where is the education of our preschoolers going when we are allowing this level of education to be responsible for some of the most important years of our childrens lives?
Now as most of my readers are parents and almost certainly the largest majority of you are mummies you will nod your head knowingly when I mention Mummy Brain. Apparently it doesnt exist, but we all know better dont we.
Mummy Brain affects us from pregnancy until I would say sometime around the second birthday of our last child although some will argue that it continues for a while after this in a milder form.
Mummy brain is said to occur because we get distracted, because our brains are concentrating on all the things we need to think about for the baby or child and how to keep them safe, warm, fed and happy. This means that we forget why we put the car keys in the fridge or why we went upstairs.
I felt that my brain was coming back in the summer of last year but then something else happened, I started blogging and now I suffer from something that is not widely talked about.
That's right I am suffering from Bloggers Brain. To do a public service I thought that I should share the symptoms with you to help you with self diagnosis as not even the doctors cant help with this condition.
Symptoms of Bloggers Brain
Inability to concentrate when doing non blogging tasks
Random blog titles and ideas come at the most inconvenient moments
Inability to think of said blog titles or ideas when sat in front of your blog
Inability to sleep due to blog ideas
Waking up in the middle of the night with blog ideas
Not remembering any blog ideas in the morning
Physically attached to twitter at all times
Do things just so you can blog about them
Take photos of things jsut so you can blog about them
Talk about blogging to anyone who will listen
Refer to blogging/tweeting friends by there blog/twitter names
Celebrate when going to a blogging conference (who would normally even want to go to a conference?)
I know there are more Bloggers Brain sufferers out there so I thought we could form a support group. Please get in touch if you feel you need help and support or even if you have recognised any more symptoms of this social life killer!
I would not just like to receive a Mad award I would love it or to be honest even to be shortlisted or nominated but realistically I know that this might not happen, reading the categories I can already picture the blogs that I can imagine winning and they are some amazing blogs written by some amazing people.
Yes, I have made an impact (or so I would have hoped) in my few short months of blogging but there are people who have made a bigger impact and would deserve to win the best New blog award.
Yes, I managed to send out 196 christmas presents to 196 people but there are people out there doing amazing things for charity with their blogs and making more of an impact that that did.
Yes, I am friendly and helpful and will always offer support or help where people need it but there are people out there who know more and share more than I do and would deserve to win the most helpful blogger award.
I dont see myself as inspirational and definitely not technical, I am not pregnant and I dont have a baby anymore, I am not very thifty and definitely have no fashion sense, I dont run a small business or write about my home and although I can cook I dont tend to share this with you. So where exactly would I fit? I blog about quite a few things, I blog about family life, I blog when we have fun as a family but I wouldnt say I am a family fun blog or even a family life blog.
I am not the best writer out there by a long shot and I dont take great photos as most of mine are taken using my phone, I haven't written anything truly brilliant to be considered blog post of the year and I definitely dont do crafts.
It is hard trying to pigeon hole my blog into any of the categories apart from the new blog award and I think putting myself up for most helpful blogger would just be blowing my own trumpet but if you feel so inclined I would love to be nominated where ever you see fit.
Good luck to all the lovely bloggers out there I know you all deserve a nomination and I will be thinking long and hard before I submit mine because you are all wonderful to me.
Last year my kids got far too much chocolate for easter, they were just 2 and 1 and they had so many eggs it was ridiculous and we even bought them one each so this year I am looking at alternative gifts.
The cheapest of these being a great value personalised E-story from itsyourstory.co.uk just 99p for the Supersox story and Alison loves hers.
So here are some gifts for under £5
Elizabeth loves the Shoulder Buddy that she was sent so that would definitely be her choice.
If you wanted to spend a bit more you can find these gifts for under £10
For god parents, grand parents or any of the other relatives who tend to spoil our kids there is the under £20 category. I have been very selective here and believe that true quality is worth paying for so my recommendations are the Pillow Pet by Mookie Toys or a family set from Sylvanian Families.
These products were all selected from the brands we love to work with.
This week I wrote about saying Goodbye to my Share teh Blog love feature so I can spend more time with the kids and I have to say it was amazing. We decorated, we played outside and we went to the farm.
We love spending time as a family and we are looking forward to more time together this weekend.
RSS Feed
